We are not interested in the personal feud (unless it gets in the way), but if the building gets fixed up and given to who can benefit most (Tampa Bay History Center, maybe) that is fine with us. Is there physical progress?

It is clear from the Times article itself that the Estuary/Bass Pro Shops deal was the worst of the bunch: the second highest cost (interestingly the Amazon deal was most expensive and also had low paying jobs), the fewest jobs, and likely the worst wages. (And, as we noted last week, Bass Pro Shops is probably getting a subsidy anyway. See Bass Pro – Not a subsidy?) It is definitely the kind of deal we do not need.

The County Commission and other elected officials – and economic development officials – should not misread the poll as carte blanche to keep giving away taxpayer money for anything.

Incentives are fine, but the deal better be worth it.

Transportation – The Only Commissioner Willing to Speak, Speaks Again

We have noted that most of the Hillsborough County Commissioners, regardless of their extended talking shop, fails to actually discuss what they support and what they think should happen regarding transportation. There is one exception, and he has spoken again:

The real question is, since it is has been deemed essential for so long, why did it take so long to get built (It’s a toll road after all)? Why did it take the Great Recession and federal stimulus funding to fund it? What has everyone been doing for all those decades?

There was an article in the Tribune this week about all the highway construction going on in the area, and there is a lot. That is all good (though the expansion of I-275 is $215.4 million while one fancy exit/bridge in Miami is $600 million, see Transportation – Meanwhile In the Rest of Florida. Considering the not illogical assumption that I-275 carries more traffic and is more critical, that seems a bit unbalanced.), but you have to wonder why everything took so long to do.

And is why fixing the bottleneck at the eastern end of the Howard Frankland Bridge not part of it? It makes little sense to widen all the feeder roads and then leave a massive bottleneck right in the middle of the metro.

“Downtown Ybor City?” We have enough issues developing our real downtown. Do we have to invent new ones?

Then we saw this picture in the Times:

From the Times – click on picture for article

Really? That sure looks like a picture taken from the driver side. We hope the photographer was not doing some hands-free driving.

YborCity – Proposals Are In

We have previously discussed two RFP’s issued by the City for lots in Ybor City – one for a hotel and one for apartment. We noted that all the coverage had indicated each RFP really arose from the expressed interest of a specific developer and that the City seemed to think the RFP’s were a formality before just be approving those specific proposals. Now the bids are in. First, for the hotel:

Liberty are the people suing the Port over Channelside, which makes their bid and how the City deals with them interesting. Of course, until the City picks a bid, we likely will not get to see the bids so there is no way to judge any of this.

We like the Straz Tower proposal, so hopefully the developers’ Ybor idea is good. Once again, though, there was an odd lack of interest in the RFP. (InTown/Framework also were the sole bidders for the surprise RFP for the land involved in the Straz Tower project).

We have nothing against good developments. We also have nothing against not accepting any of the proposals and waiting for something better in the future. Whatever is selected should be good – not just something to fill the space because officials want to attend a ribbon cutting. We shall have to see.

HillsboroughCounty – Something Done Right

Hillsborough County recently provided information about the new garbage collection service.

Imagine that. Many of you may remember that there was decent opposition in the County Commission to opening up the garbage collection contracts back in late 2011. (See here and here) Eventually, despite heavy lobbying from the vested companies, the County Commission did open up the bids. We are glad they did, and the initial results are positive.

Exactly. Yet, though it is early, the system is better and helping the County. So far, it has worked out in a fiscally responsible and environmentally favorable way. If only the County took that approach most of the time.

A Bit of History – Tony Jannus

Around New Years Day there were a number of articles regarding a New Years Day attempt to reenact the truly game-changing flight of Tony Jannus from St. Pete to Tampa that kicked off commercial air travel.

There is a lot of talk these days regarding creating innovation and creative destruction. The Tony Jannus flight was a perfect example of that, and that it could occur between two Florida towns in 1914 – our area – is quite remarkable. (Note: Hillsborough County’s population in 1910 which included what became Pinellas was 78374. Pinellas came into being in 1912 and the population of Hillsborough and Pinellas was 116522 in 1920. See here) It shows what we could/can do and be.

(The exact story of Pan Am and NYRBA is a little more complicated than that. see here and here)

We are not going to opine about the exact details of an airport/seaplane base on/near Bayshore or get into elected officials handpicking a citizens advisory committee so that they could ignore the majority vote and favor friends and benefactors. The bottom line is that issue was not worked out, we did not get the extensive connections to Latin America, and, that, as they say, is that. The whole episode sounds to us like the present discussion of numerous issues like transportation and planning.

It is a reminder that this area has not lacked innovation and creativity in many fields. (We are not even going to try to list everything and everyone.) However, too often we have been willing to let our innovations and innovators go somewhere else to succeed and thrive rather than giving them the needed help to grow here and benefit everyone.

Maybe it was just an oversight in the story, but the Port of Tampa and Port Manatee do not seem to figure in any way. (You can read more about the east coast ports here and here.)

– Transit

While we ponder our transportation future and PSTA and HART (mainly HART) squabble about who should be in charge, in South Florida, things move ahead regionally. For instance, the South Florida Regional Transit Authority (operator of Tri-Rail) told us last week:

Not only that, but the region is now working on a new Tri-Rail line that will link the downtown areas in South Florida. (See here There are maps in the overview section.) The entire commuter system links with Miami’s Metro Rail. The new line would like with the Wave Streetcar to be built in Ft. Lauderdale.

The list is in total numbers, not percentage. Coming in first was Atlanta, followed by LA, Santa Ana-Anaheim, the Tampa Bay area. They only listed four in the press release. You can see percentage change list here.

It is a good sign, probably boosted by all the road construction. (It might also be a sign that we are behind on the construction boom in that other areas have already boosted their employment, but it is not entirely clear.) In any event, we’ll take it, though it is another sign that developers do not need subsidies – they need companies to occupy the space they build.

Fascinating information about Tampa’s history with Pan Am. I didn’t realize that the clubby, unwelcoming, calcified, small-thinking habits of Tampa political and business leadership went as far back as 1929. Sadly, they persist to this day.

I would like to know if Bass Pro paid any money to a real estate broker/company when they purchased the land from the developer. It would explain why one commissioner got off the bench and pleaded for the 6.25 million. Bass Pro’s own documents states that over 50% of their customer base comes from within 50 miles and less than 2% from over 200 miles. Bass Pro will siphon off business from Mom and Pop stores just as Wal Mart does. Bass Pro also states that the vast majority of jobs will pay $11 to $14 dollars per hour. Jobs that will need taxpayer subsidies for housing and food stamps to survive. Neither document was enclosed in the package presented at the BOCC when the vote was taken but it was included in the documents at the county. Bass Pro isn’t a bad deal it is a rip off for the taxpayers of Hillsborough County.